A Quick Moment From Today, and a Note About Love

A man walks into the store I work at, picks up a bag of food and brings it to the counter.

"What are you listening to?" he asks.

"Florence and the Machine."

"How old are you?"

I pause.

"Twenty." he pauses because he's waiting to hear another number follow it.

"That's great."

He pays and leaves.

What the hell was that all about? What an odd, and very quick conversation. It would make more sense if I were listening to an older band, and not one that has just recently come into fame and power. I should have asked how old he thought I was.. I'm always curious to know-- I'm young but I feel so goddamn old.

...

People don't think that I believe in love-- and I certainly peddle that image. I guess I just am not really that kind of girl. I don't like romantic comedies, I don't really do public acts of affection, I don't fall into the traps that girls do. I can see the romance in things but I can also see the stupidity in romance.

But what it really comes down to is that I don't believe in long-term love. I fall in love frequently, fast, and hard. I also fall out of love, frequently, fast, and hard. I fall in love with a boy on a bike as he's riding by, and out of love the second he hits the horizon line. Does this make sense to you? I don't know how to explain it properly, but maybe you already understand. I'm sure that I could stay put--it's just so hard. I can't promise anything, but I also can't write anything off. Maybe my kind of love isn't real love, but it's the only kind of love I can honestly believe in.

crash of a motorcycle

I was driving back from my studio two nights ago-- pitch black, empty campus. Silent.

There was a car parked in the road on the wrong side of the road, with its headlights on full blast.

And in the bright white light were two bloody boys entangled together.

One was lying on the ground, his body curved around the other boy's. His eyes were closed, and there was blood coming from his head. Did you know that blood on the streets just looks like water? And there was so much blood.

The other boy was more terrifying. He was sitting up, with his arms wrapped around his legs and staring blankly at the darkness around him.

I drove by the bloody boys carefully, and stopped politely on the shoulder while the ambulances roared past.

Gallery Opening at Gallery 31

Enjoy the antlers!

Some exciting news for everyone--- the work I completed about two weeks ago at the Corcoran Catch n' Release Symposium is going up in the Gallery 31 part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Design in DC (It's the NY ave entrance). It's some pretty cool stuff, though I have to admit, most of the pieces I didn't have much of a screenprinting hand in; I was up in the letterpress studio making a mess most of the time. Anyhow, it'll still be a nice show, it'll be on Thursday from 5:30-7:30. Come on out!!

And now I will return to baking my pumpkin bread and tea. And my paper due tomorrow.

DADDY! THE DOGGIE'S DEAD!!!!

I know. Cool, right? Makes me want to get back into some spray paint.

catch and release.

I was recently honored to have been invited to the Catch and Release Print Symposium down at Corcoran for some serious printmaking with some serious printmakers. Printmaking professors from four of the top DC and Maryland printmaking universities brought 5 of their best students each to rock out in collaboration to create dozens of truly beautiful pieces of free for all art. Eight hours of straight printmaking each day.

I learned how to use a letterpress and I am in love! I think I will build one-- although I really do need to finish building my screenprinting one. Here's an example of one of the first letter prints I did; note my special ink splattering on the letters!


I have to say though-- after working so long with no text in my work it was pretty difficult to think of anything to print on the work up in the letterpress studio. The student working with me asked: Well what do you want to say! And I could think of absolutely nothing. Sometimes I swear I can only communicate in pictures. So I ended up printing a few choice words instead.. good. monster.

Anyhow-- we created some really brilliant work which is going into the fabulous Corcoran Gallery tomorrow with a reception next week-- details to follow.. but it'll be next week I think.

In other art news-- I was recently featured in a small show at the artDC gallery in Hyattsville and walked out selling five pieces-- and met some fantastic fellow artists and got some great feedback from the clever crowd that showed up!

And studio news... I'm also in the middle of a new edition that will be done this week. I've laid out all the foundation so all I've gotta do is work out the linework for the frontal section and slam that in which will be done in the next couple days. It began as a prawn like figure with shadows coming out.. clearly it's turned into something a bit more design based.


And real life news... I am working my tail off and I am taking a laughably low credit course load. My roommates and I played a game last night where we threw stuff at each other all over the house and if you didn't catch it, you were a nerd. The logic in this game was that nerds can't catch. Infalliable logic.